Turkey, Iran and Brazil agree on fuel swap deal

Turkey's Foreign Minister said on Sunday that an agreement had been reached between Iran, Turkey and Brazil over procedures to revive a stalled UN backed nuclear fuel swap deal.Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in Iran for a summit of non-aligned countries, also held talks on the nuclear issue with Iran's leadership Sunday. Turkey's foreign ministry said a formal announcement might be made on Monday after any final revisions by the Brazilian and Iranian presidents and the Turkish prime minister. Iran later said it would only swap its LEU for higher grade material and only on its own soil, conditions other parties in the deal said were unacceptable. It denies seeking to build an atomic bomb. Turkey and Brazil, both non-permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, have offered to mediate to find a resolution to the impasse at a time when world powers are in talks to impose a fourth round of U.N. sanctions on Iran. The Brazilian and Turkish leaders have been trying to revive a deal reached last October in which Iran would ship much of its stockpile of enriched uranium abroad for further processing; the uranium would then return as fuel rods for a medical research reactor. Mr. Erdogan suggested to reporters in Turkey before leaving for Iran that the uranium swap could take place in Turkey.